Nova Scotia is officially landing its second Cabot resort.
Cabot has unveiled Cabot Wilds, a 2,500-acre destination resort coming to Cumberland County, anchored by an 18-hole course from Canadian architect Jeff Mingay. The project is being developed with longtime Cabot investor John Bragg and is set to open in late 2027, more than a decade after Cabot Links put Inverness on the golf map.
The land sits in Collingwood Corner, a rural stretch of forests, blueberry fields and rolling hills along the River Philip in the foothills of the Cobequid Mountains. Halifax Stanfield International Airport is roughly 90 minutes away. Cabot Cape Breton is about three hours by car.
Oxford, known as the wild blueberry capital of Canada, is a 15-minute drive from the site. That is no coincidence. Bragg and his family founded Oxford Frozen Foods there, the world's largest wild blueberry farming operation.
Construction started last year under an earlier name, River Philip Golf Resort, and Cabot Wilds carries that build forward under Cabot's branding and operating umbrella. Mingay's routing crosses the river twice, once by footbridge from the fourth tee and again on the eighth hole, with wide corridors, natural contours and expressive greens designed to stay walkable for golfers at any level.
It is also a career first. Mingay has spent 25 years in golf architecture, largely on restoration work at clubs including Beaconsfield and Victoria Golf Club, and Cabot Wilds is his first solo, original design.
Beyond the 18 holes, the resort is set to deliver a clubhouse, dining, a driving range, a recreation pavilion, racquet sports facilities and cottage real estate, with a future lodge and additional guest rooms planned in a later phase. The River Philip shapes more than the golf, with fishing, mountain biking and snow sports on the slate so the property has something to offer well outside golf season.
"For the first time in 25 years people are seeing golf as a profitable investment, which is astonishing to me," Mingay told the Globe and Mail. "We can build courses or we can renovate courses. It was always a risk, but more people seem to be taking the risk, which is great."
Bragg's ties to Cabot run deeper than this one project. He has been a longtime investor in Cabot Cape Breton, and earlier this year he increased his ownership stake, acquiring the land under Cabot Links and the company's other Inverness County properties. "We are honored to work with John Bragg and his family to bring Cabot Wilds to life and shine a light on this beautiful corner of Nova Scotia," said Cabot CEO and co-founder Ben Cowan-Dewar.
Cabot Wilds joins a portfolio that has been growing fast, from Cabot Citrus Farms, the company's first U.S. property in Florida, to Cabot Revelstoke in British Columbia. For Cabot, though, this one is a homecoming. The company is building in Nova Scotia again, on the mainland rather than Cape Breton, and on a course shaped by a river instead of the coastline that made Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs famous. Look for it in late 2027.